A 14-year-old boy is in custody after being charged with making a terroristic threat toward a Sioux Falls middle school. Police determined the threat was not valid.

The boy had sent Snapchat messages Thursday night to an undetermined number of people saying he was going to "shoot up" Memorial Middle School, said police spokesman Sam Clemens.

Police received tips from parents and students around 10 p.m. Thursday. The boy's parents were not aware of the messages sent, Clemens said. The boy did not have access to weapons and it was determined there was no immediate danger to the school.

"There have been a lot of things happening nationwide and this really illustrates the importance of see something, say something," Clemens said. "People in Sioux Falls are good about if they see something out of the ordinary, they report it to police."

The boy was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center and charged with making a terroristic threat, simple assault and misuse of electronic communication.

A screenshot of the messages sent to The Argus Leader from a parent of a student who received the Snapchats show the messages say "HMU to help shoot mms" and "This is going down tomorrow."

Clemens couldn't say if the boy was a student at Memorial Middle School.

James Nold, assistant superintendent of the Sioux Falls School District, said he's grateful students and parents brought the threat to police and enforced the importance of school resource officers.

"Any type of things like that on social media, parents really need to work with their children and talk to them about the fact that what they put out there is not a joke, and it can never be taken as a joke," Nold said. "Those things are taken very seriously by the school district and the community and the students' parents and the police department."